I know I seemed all over the map this week, no discernible shared topic among the blog offerings, none of the usual weekly theme. Upon closer inspection, however, they were tied to the typical year-end deluge of thoughts about what mattered, what could have been different, and what I am grateful for.

By no means a comprehensive list, but: Music and art mattered, as did friendships and my photo gigs for diverse organizations in town. There could have been more traveling and fewer surgeries to make it a different year. I am, however, content and above all grateful for learning new things each day, still being able to read and think, with lots of time to do both. And being able to walk about in nature where everything else becomes so inconsequential.

Beyond my personal view on 2018, here is what 16 historians claim will be in future history books (spoiler alert: it ain’t good….)

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/28/what-will-history-books-say-about-2018-223561

Join me, then, on my walk that I took yesterday. So much coming and going, so much noise, the air was filled with it. None of it as pearling as Liszt’s piece, Sermon at Assisi, that I chose for today, a piece that I tried to fall asleep to when my mother played it in the room below my bedroom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20f-bYmi62E

The geese were but noisy,

and the herons had the squeakiest voice imaginable, in great contrast to their visual elegance.

Even the pintail ducks were full of songs, obviously confused about what season it is.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKU42FkOd2o

And the kingfisher was cackling, as if he was making fun of me, for my end-of-year contemplations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTFxIF5FY-Q

Here is Schumann’s Bird as Prophet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HQ9yxiDLSM

The place I chose is half way to the coast, Fernhill near Forest Grove, an old water recycling plant area that has been converted into a nature preserve, with local volunteers keeping it up, replanting it, making sure it is ecologically attractive for many of the migrating birds. A wondrous place.